Infinity Ward loses two more long-serving staff members

The fallout at Infinity Ward continues as two more key staff members have left the studio. Todd Alderman, an eight year veteran of the studio, and lead designer, is thought to have resigned his post. Lead software engineer, and seven year veteran Francesco Gigliotti has also joined Alderman in leaving.

No official announcement has been made about why they left, but their LinkedIn profiles have been updated to reflect the change.

A lot remains unclear as to what is happening at Infinity Ward. Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired, and are currently suing Activision. Meanwhile Activision is shaking things up with a new dedicated business unit for the CoD franchise.

Losing a lead designer and your lead software engineer is a major upset for a studio. These are the guys guiding the different teams at Infinity Ward, so them leaving is sure to upset both development schedules and general confidence among staff. Did they leave because of what Activision is doing? I wouldn’t bet against it.

It’s still surprising to me that you can launch a game as successful as MW2 has been, and then completely screw up the studio a few months later. But that seems to be exactly what Activision has done, and I would love to know why.

Was it business mentality getting in the way of common sense? Or has this all been set in motion by Zampella and West? One thing is for sure, all bets are off as to the quality of MW3 when it sees a release.